Several modern day weapon concepts, particularly airborne directed energy weapon programs of interest to the U.S. military, appear to be limited in utility by the existing developmental state of the energy storage electrical capacitor. The relatively large mass and physical size of such capacitors due to their low joules per pound capability—limit the possible fielding/commercialization of large pulsed power, high energy density systems. The present invention is focused on one way in which these limitations may be overcome through an unusual and at first blush radical revisiting of the aircraft materials and aircraft structures arts. The technical concepts used in the present invention may be employed in other pulse and power management applications on board an aircraft or in other settings particularly in the movable vehicle and robotic arts.
The use of electrical conductors in a textile material as comprises a significant part of the present invention has of course been accomplished in several classes of the technical arts for some time. In the electrical heating art as is exemplified by the electrical flying suits of the World War two era and in electric blankets, for example, the enclosing of electrical resistance elements between layers of a textile item is known to have been practiced. Similarly the imbedding of electrical resistance wires in the glass or the plastic intermediate layer of automotive windshield stock has been practiced. The weaving of electrical conductors into the fabric of a material desirably provided with electrical conductivity for the purpose of static electrical discharge reduction is also believed to have been practiced in the hospital and other technical arts. The incorporation of electrical capacitor elements within a woven fabric is however believed to be a less common or even previously unaccomplished occurrence.